Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Quote of the Day

"It's clearly a PR statement for damage control. It's clearly not true but what can you do."

-- Former, ahem, "Project Veritas" Executive Director Izzy Santa, responding to James O'Keefe's long-winded line of bullshit denying that he ever planned to get CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau aboard a boat and pretend to seduce her with champagne, fuzzy handcuffs and sex toys

The most noteworthy thing about this story isn't frat boy O'Keefe's lamebrained attempt at getting Abbie Bourdreau in an uncomfortable and compromising position on camera -- it's that he planned to feed CNN a phony scoop, then notify "friendly networks and media outlets" (read: Fox News) so that they could call the network on it. Granted, this is James O'Keefe and CNN we're talking about -- meaning that the latter thoroughly vets any potential news item it receives and would absolutely be suspicious of anything it got from a discredited prick like the former. But it does go a long way in proving how, in the current Wild West-like media landscape, there's always the possibility that the information being passed off as fact could very well be nothing but some asshole's idea of a joke.

Of course, if O'Keefe wanted to expose CNN for being dumb enough to fall for a fake news item -- taking the story to Fox might not be the best idea. Then again, maybe it would.

And it does beg the question: What if this entire thing -- the phony seduction, the turncoat producer, all of it -- has been completely engineered to produce a fake story?

Please don't call O'Keefe a "frat guy". I was in a fraternity for all four years of college and there's no way we would have let that kid in. Uber-political, self-serious nerds are hated by all, most especially frat guys.

That's exactly what I thought when this story broke : this is fake. Who writes 10+ pages on their next prank, except people who wouldn't be caught dead doing it (because it might get them in jail), but who want to convince others they are daring enough ? He gets a lot of free media exposure with this "failed" prank, a lot more than he would have if he had carried it on. "I would have done it, but I got caught early, ha ha ha".

What's the use ? a- convince the rednecks that he's one of them, and that his college education shouldn't prevent them from electing him ; b- persuade others, dumber ones, that they should carry on such acts of harassing political enemies, without having to really do it first. I would call it "inciting to violence against non-friendly media". Suicide bombers are taught by non-suicide bombers, obviously. He talks the talk but he doesn't walk the walk. He's furthering his political career among the nutters in the only way they can understand.

I wondered about this too. Especially the way they describe Santa when she is tipping Boudreau off. Why the throwaway bit about the "dirt" on her cheek? What was that all about? Seemed a bit odd to me.

I'm a former network news producer and manager, the media editor at The Daily Banter, and a writer who's been featured in The Huffington Post,The New York Observer and The Village Voice. I'm also the author of a book called Dead Star Twilight and the founder of DXM Media, a firm specializing in television production as well as social media strategies and consulting. On top of all that crap, I'm the co-host of "The Bob & Chez Show" podcast and radio show with Bob Cesca. To find out more about me and/or throw money at me, go here. You can contact me at deusexmalcontent@gmail.com or chez@dxmmedia.com. Follow me on Twitter at @chezpazienza.

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